Heating Up the Eurozone

The EU has issued a new report about climate impacts. The picture is mixed, with some good news (warmer winters in the Northern and Eastern Europe) but bad news in other respects. The report has this to say about some disaster risks:

Increases in health risks associated with river and coastal flooding are projected in many regions of Europe due to projected increases in extreme precipitation events and sea level.

Length, frequency, and intensity of heat-waves are very likely to increase in the future. This increase can lead to a substantial increase in mortality over the next decades, especially in vulnerable groups, unless adaptation measures are taken.

As an example of one of the effects of climate change, this map shows projected decreases in water availability:

Water Availability

There are similar maps showing how the climate has changed in Europe over the past fifty years and how it is likely to change going forward unless emissions are sharply reduced.

There is a depressing sameness to forecasts of climate change. They all feature more extreme events such as flooding, heat waves, and wildfires. The risk is that, like the warnings on cigarette packs, the repetition will become numbing. But in both cases, the reason that the warnings stay the same is that the risks remain the same. The question is whether people will heed these warnings.

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Reader Comments

Dan,
Check out the link below. More than 1000 new coal-fired power plants planned worldwide. Add to this all the new vehicle emissions, stoves, and hot-water heaters in developing countries, and carbon dioxide emissions will skyrocket in the years ahead.

The funny thing is that some people would have us believe that they have a “solution.” This is a joke because there is absolutely nothing that anyone can do to effectively reduce or mitigate this huge amount of new carbon dioxide emissions (on top of the even larger amount of unmitigated emissions that now exist).

For those of us who really care, a cool shower and cold beer offer much more real hope, relief, and adaptation than all the carbon credits in California put together. And Dan wants to save us. Now that’s funny.

Dan,
Check out the link below. More than 1000 new coal-fired power plants planned worldwide. Add to this all the new vehicle emissions, stoves, and hot-water heaters in developing countries, and carbon dioxide emissions will skyrocket in the years ahead.

The funny thing is that some people would have us believe that they have a “solution.” This is a joke because there is absolutely nothing that anyone can do to effectively reduce or mitigate this huge amount of new carbon dioxide emissions (on top of the even larger amount of unmitigated emissions that now exist).

For those of us who really care, a cool shower and cold beer offer much more real hope, relief, and adaptation than all the carbon credits in California put together. And Dan wants to save us. Now that’s funny.